##VIDEO ID:5tuypltfXVI## e e e e e e e e e e e I know can you hear me okay we're going to go ahead and get started I it well good stuff okay tonight is the kenalan Board of Education regular meeting for September 20th 2024 the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public budes at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the kinan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Suburban Trends on January January 21st 2024 posted in the Kenan Public Library with the burough Clerk and posted on the district website Mrs Francisco will you call the board Please Mr Isa manger here Mrs Leonard here Mr Myers here Mrs Pella here Mrs Portman here Mr Petrelli here Mrs Donaldson here no Clos session is need at this moment please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of americe okay routine matters we have approval of the minutes for the August 27th regular meeting and the August 27th executive session meeting can I have motion to approve motion to approve second any discussion on them no okay um M Francisco please call the board Mr Eiser yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes M Pella yes M Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes M Donaldson yes okay we have our new student representative for the school year the kinan Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the appointment of salony Mattel as the student representative to the board of education for the 2024 2025 school year welcome welcome to the board [Applause] Salon report uh so a little bit about the students from the halls of Kinnelon Public Schools uh so we'd like to start off with K skis Cisco thank you to our students staff and families for an amazing start to the school year additionally we are very excited about our continued partnership with Kesha our elementary home and School Association we are so grateful for the student supplies that they funded as well as the great programs that our students are going to experience this school year thanks to Kesha's generosity and support it was lovely welcoming our K Cisco families back for back to school night on September 12th we had an amazing turnout also we celebrated dot day on September 16th in celebration of creativity courage and collaboration an important message for us all also we like we are very excited for our key sponsored ice cream social this Thursday September 26th September 26th is also Johnny apples day which is inspiring our upcoming apple cider press experience where students will get to learn how to make apple cider over the course of two days in October more information is coming soon we raised awareness for Childhood Cancer last Friday September 27th by going gold and wearing gold to school additionally we will celebrate Pete the C day in honor of our love of reading this Monday September 30th and lastly we are looking forward to an October that is filled with fun and learning now we'll move on to Stonybrook the 2024 2025 School Year is off to a great start thank you to Kesha for purchasing all school supplies for our students student Stony Brook staffs and students celebrated dot day on September 16th next thank you to all of our families who attended our back to school night on September M 17th and we had an amazing turnout as well we are very proud of all of our students who ran for student council congratulations to all the students who won and well represent their classes for the 2024 2025 school year next Stony Brook staff and students show their support for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month by also wearing gold and Yellow on September 20th and lastly Kesha will hold our SB ice cream social on Monday September 3 30th and Stony Brook is also preparing for the week of respect which will be recognized during the week of October 7th third we have PRM we thank our PRM staff students and families for an excellent start to the school year Mr mongan and Mrs yoses met with all students in grades six seven and eight in classroom meetings to share important information with students and set the stage for a great school year PRM students and staff took part in the gold out to support Childhood Cancer Research that was brought to us by the kinan wreck football and cheer programs we would also like to thank all the parents who participated in back to school night which was very well attended we also thank the PRM HSA for providing a delicious dinner for our staff on that evening next we would like to thank chief napolino for joining us for back to school night and sharing information about ebikes with PRM parents the handout T shared are available in the most recent edition of the PRM newsletter which is posted in our website lastly the PRM principles Forum will take place on Thursday October 10th both in person as well as online the session will be focused on PRM initiatives and activities for the 2024 25 school year we will post a recording of the meeting online for anyone who is not able to see it live and lastly we have Kenan high school we would first like to uh give our congrats to to the boys cross country team for winning the Invitational meet the guidance Department hosted a college fair for students in grades 10th to 12th grade next students and advisers are preparing for the upcoming week of respect October 7th to uh October 11th as well as Spirit Week on October 14th to 18th uh we'd like to let you know that the PS PSATs will take place on October 23rd also students are enjoying the new Starbucks Coffee station during their unit lunch next students are encouraged to attend the homecoming game on Friday October 18th as well as a homecoming dance on Saturday October 19th that's all from KHS thank you thanks Salon superintendent report right thank you Mrs president welcome everybody okay so I do have a few things to share and before I do I just want to welcome Salon to our table we're very proud to have you and um for those of you so Mom and Dad I know you're here and your brothers and sis your brother and sister so congratulations on a great job um she's going to do well this year learn a lot and for anybody that doesn't remember at the end of last school year sonon was one of the co-presidents of our ability awareness club and was the founder of diversity Derby Day for our special education population so really I I am thrilled thrill to have you here sonon so thank you um I just want to kick I know it's the end of September but uh our staff was in the week of August 26th which feels like a lifetime ago and this being my 29th year in education I have to say this was one of the smoothest openings I've ever been part of at any level in any district and really that's a big thank you to everybody in the district on our staff for making it that way for working together for our board and their support throughout the summer leading up and then once we open the doors even for our parents you know the typical traffic jams and the things that you know admins and teachers have to contend we we did well went without a hitch so really I have to commend everybody in our community for making that work so thank you um as you know we're we're holding and conducting reunification drills on the Hills at the end of last year or KHS so this year I want to thank Mr shivas and Mrs Ola because ke Cisco jumped into it and Mr shivas in particularly for basically taking the last year to put this into play um it's really a lot of coordination and collaboration with PD with our staff all levels of our staff with our building admins and Mrs ala jumped in and truthfully it was it was pretty um amazing to watch our little ones and our staff up down out the door downsteps uphills to PRM and we moved along you know the way we needed to so um if you're talking to your neighbors and anybody had any kind of complaints and you know everybody likes to look where for somewhat or blame uh because we kind of block roads at different times throughout that time frame you you could you could call me but um it I'll take those calls anytime because it's something well served and muscle memory and these are the things that we have to do in this new world that we live so um just a big thanks to Mr shivas and and Mrs ala and her staff over aille Okay so this time last year uh last year last month I shared with the citizens advisory that I hadn't heard anything about the feasibility study regarding Bonton Township and at that point that was true I had only had one conversation with the then superintendent of botin Township the K8 about maybe making them an offer at least have a conversation about Kenan high school maybe their students would like to come to kinan high school because they were in some kind of negotiation with Mount Lakes um their superintendent left I know in Mount Lakes their business administrator left and lo and behold the business office received an email request on uh some information particular to the high school for for themselves from their firm because they're now conducting a feasibility study so I don't want anybody in our community to get upset or be you know think that our board's doing our board has nothing to do with anything other than saying hey they're conducting a feasibility study let them because we know from our own demographic study that right now our enrollment is 510 in the high school we know what budgets are we know what programs are we're doing the best we can in balancing both between the middle and the high school but as you all know cost goes up it doesn't go down so when you're talking programs when you're talking about maintenance when you're talking about your facilities whatever it is your staff it's a lot of money and we don't have a net revenue so I'll just be optimistic to say hey I'm part of any conversation you'd like to have that walkthrough is on September 30th this coming Monday morning so they'll have their representatives they're looking at Kon high school they're looking at Mars Hills and nolles as their options but again it's just a first step it's something that any District in New Jersey if they wanted to look at hey what's out there that's what they have to do they have to hire a firm they have to conduct a feasibility study their board has to approve it and then they have to notify those districts that they have interest so that's all it is it's just a conversation and a walkthrough come Monday but um it's something I look forward to so we have that uh under policy 5514 student use of vehicles on school grounds that that a uh that notification I sent out really more or less as a partnership with KPD and just to educate our parents because obviously we have a lot of students in town that are riding ebikes or Scooters or what have you and we know that there are challenges in town with lighting and with the roads and size of roads and the lack of sidewalks we know that um so anytime we can educate our young folks and and have them come up to speed so to speak is a a positive but at the end of the day the school can only do so much you know this is where I always say parents have to parent so we'll provide the information because I think a lot of times as parents you might not know it all Chief na platano was good enough to share that with us so it's on you so if your child already owns the ebike please follow those directions and those procedures and if you're considering it this is what is expected by PD and um because they're only with us for a few hours a day and they're outside the rest so um you know it's just rather educate together collaboratively and then uh you'll notice two resolutions for later tonight refunding of the bonds we had uh originally from your um Stonybrook extension in 2004 and in the high school in 2008 you had a series of bonds we paid off one last year you have another one that's still existing you know in 201920 you saw historic rates interest rates at low but the bond were never you know refinanced so uh Mrs Francisco uh she was able she has some good looks as far as financing she advised the board in my office that this would be an opportunity for us if we refinance now that we could save upward near uh $550,000 over the next 10 years in the life of the bonds so you'll see that there and hey well I believe in every penny counts and then the energy audit uh you know thanking councilman maybe councilman churo and councilman Harris they brought to my attention in the board an opportunity for a free energy audit clean energy which kind of has the potential in the future to lead to an energy savings but that's more or less like a year or two process this is just the first step tonight of our board approving a resolution and moving forward but you know those energy companies they don't move very fast um and at the same time as you recognize with board goals there's always that talk of hey well what would a referendum look like these are options for us to offset that even convers ation wise so I just want everybody to know in our public and our community we're doing everything we possibly can to you know with our due diligence and um to save every penny we can no matter what whether it's Roofing projects SDA grants security uh grants if we could go out and get another one and hopefully be successful uh anything possible so uh with that I just want to thank everybody for coming we I know we don't have an action-packed agenda tonight but I'm happy to be here September's almost over and before you know it it'll be that time where it's almost the new year so let's enjoy the fall thank you for coming and uh that concludes my report Mrs president oh no it does not no Lauren I lied sorry Cusack NJ cusac the New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum we are required to post this to discuss it in public and then approve it that's another motion on the board and really what NJ cusac is about it's kind of like a hospital study when firms come in and they check the for anybody who's had surgery here it doesn't matter the type of surgery you want to know that your hospital is in good shape well schools operate the same and they great Us in five areas and each one is a maximum of 0% to 100% And what we're required to do with school districts is first grade ourselves on what we believe are percentages and then the county actually comes in and they go over everything with a fine tooth comb so as arduous as it is and as sometimes Maybe the rules change County to county in the 21 counties we have in our great state um the game is the game and so they did a reflect back to the 2022 2023 calendar year and these are their scores so what you see in instruction and program we scored ourselves as a district 88% and the county scored us at 84 under fiscal management we scored ourselves at 100% the county was 100 governance we scored ourselves at 100 County was 100 in operations we scored ourselves at 100 the county gave us a score of 93 and in personel we gave ourselves a score of 96% County gave us 94 you need 80% in all five areas or more to pass I am telling you here tonight I'm very proud that we passed I was holding my breath at some points I didn't start until in the 2223 school year until the end of October we were four months in you know anytime you have a change in in the guard of the superintendency that's always a challenge you know having come and went in different places um didn't have a curriculum person for most part of that year we managed we got through so really a big thank you to our new staff that came on last year and anybody else that was involved I know Mrs Suffin who's here she was involved and Mr strad from the association Mrs Musa as a parent representative this is Donaldson in her roll as AB board and it was all hands on deck and uh I'm very proud to tell you that we passed I'll accept it and in the areas that we weren't 100% we're going to do everything we possibly can to be 100% the next time they come whenever that is three to five years so um I'm happy about that that will all be on the district website tomorrow no now that concludes my report Mrs president unless somebody has a question for me no my my section of the report Mrs Thomas I was gonna I was gonna hand it over to you and so now I want to call up Mrs Thomas our director of curriculum for her uh annual njsla report floor is all yours all ready to end this evening but we need to talk numbers um before I go into so we recently received our njla scores and we are bound to report them publicly um so that's why I'm going to report these um numbers tonight which you guys remember from last year before I go into the report um I do just want to give two quick updates so last night we had a tech Symposium which was a great evening we are we said last night that we would send out an email link with the video from the evening as well as a flyer for Varsity Tutors so last night we rolled out we introduced to parents um a new app a feature that we have in District called Varsity Tutors and it's basically just online tutoring for free for your child so students grades six through through 12 will receive specific instructions how to access that um we figured the beginning of the school year there was a lot coming out there was a lot coming at parents there was a lot coming at students so last night and now tomorrow is the perfect time for us to roll this out to students so hopefully they take advantage of it because I think it's a great service um and again you'll get more information on that but it's basically a live chat feature so if your student is at home struggling maybe with a math problem they can access a live tutor who has all been vetted they all gone through very strict security features and they can go onto an online chat and and work through those problems with the tutor um if you have any questions about that please feel free to reach out to me I have no problem answering any questions about that and help you as best I can um the second thing before we get into the scores all parents should have received notification if your child took the njsla last year you should have a copy of their ISR so their individual score reports those were all uploaded on real time so they're all accessible to you in the parent portal if you're having trouble I received a few messages earlier if you're having trouble with the website some people were getting an error message and on the website address it said no District at the end so if you just delete the words no district and type in Kinnelon and then enter through the portal you should be able to access it no problem but again if you have any questions please call me um I'm ex I'm at the board office extension 50002 um and I'm happy to walk you through that if anybody needs any help but in the past we used to mail out hard copies of the score reports with real time we don't need to do that anymore everything will be uploaded there so you can access any assessments there and then go back you know years prior um from next year on so our njla results so the performance levels njsla rates students on a level one through five so one they're not yet meeting expectations two they're partially meeting three they're approaching the grade level expectations four they're meeting and five is exceeding so here's a comparison this is what I put together um our district versus the state so I know there's a lot on this slide this will all be posted online for you to view um so don't worry about that if you're missing any numbers now so I'm just giving you general information now but basically it's District state district state so you want to see your lower percentages obviously at the level ones and twos you want to see your lower percentages there and then I highlighted level four and five again those are our meeting expectations and exceeding expectations so if you look at the comparison to the state we surpass the state in in mostly all areas if not all that was for ELA sorry grades three through nine so we assess beginning grades three all the way up through nine same thing for math beginning at grade three all the way on up um essentially through grade nine although it could be earlier some students in the middle school take higher level math courses so those students are assessed on the njsla in whatever Math course they're enrolled in so some students in seventh grade may be taking Algebra 1 um some eighth graders may be taking geometry so those scores are included in there as well the science scoring information is a little bit different they have four levels of scoring so basically again you're level one below proficient level two is nearly three you are proficient and a four is um Advanced proficiency and here are science percentages compared to the state again so I just labeled them out district and state um in science we assess um at the the end of grade five 8 and 11 and this is just looking up close this is just kinan alone so removing all the state percentages this is just looking at kinan so if you look at the far right column those are a percentage of students in each grade level that have either met or are exceeding grade level standards on that assessment so overall um you know and and comparing to last year we're pretty consistent with our scores from last year I'm seeing increases I see steady increases across the board um but I think this is is phenomenal I think the students did an incredible job obviously the teachers did an incredible job um and I think it's reflected in this remember this is one and I know I say this a lot this is one assessment so we don't we use this for great data and I'll explain that a little more in the next couple slides but we always compare this to other form of data that we're collecting during the school day so we use this and compare it with other benchmark assessments we're doing in school we use it and compare it up against iel Diagnostics so we do use this as a piece of data but remember I wouldn't just concentrate on solely njsla scores alone and then here's taking a look at our kelon scores for Math and again so you see down at the bottom you see it broken out into the various math courses because again um these math courses can be taken at different stages in middle school and high school so the algebra 2 and geometry you know really great knocked it out of the park there they did an excellent job um and I think again we're steadily increasing in our level four and five um those are great percentages again surpassing the state and I see us steadily increasing every year so and just to highlight math because I said um that seventh graders can take either the regular math 7 njsla or some students are enrolled in Algebra 1 so if seventh grade students are enrolled in Algebra 1 they are taking that njsla assessment not the regular math 7 assessment same thing in eighth grade they are either taking the math 8 assessment or if they are in a higher level math such as algebra one or geometry then they take that specific math assessment so we broke it up here on this slide so that it shows the grade level overall so that it's not just pinpointing the course so the seventh graders overall were reaching 61% meeting or exceeding expectations on the test they took and then again for the eighth grader 71% of the total eighth grade population met or exceeded their standards and here's just taking a look at our district science percentages so again they're pretty similar to to about where we were scoring last year um but still surpassing the state nonetheless we are also bound to report on our subgroups so subgroups are students in various um ethnicities um also students with IEPs so we're bound to report on those if any one group is less than 10 then we don't report on it because then that would be almost singling out the students so we're not allowed to report on students in a group of less than 10 but if it's 10 or more then we are bound to report that um and these are the next couple slides here I broke it out into all the different subgroups so students with IEPs taking the ELA and jsla grades three through nine and again you could see I always concentrate on our levels four and five um and again we always take a look at our levels one and two students who are still not reaching proficiency obviously and I'll talk about that a little bit later that's obviously we're targeting those students as well because that drives our decisions of how are we going to address those needs with all students across the board and these are our math scores for students with IEPs and the groups were too small for geometry and Algebra 2 and that's why you see that less than sign it was less than our subgroup than our subgroup um allotment of 10 and then here are our slides our numbers from um students from different ethnic groups here's Ela and math again this will all be posted so you can review all this information okay so what does this all mean so achievements and interventions um we continue to surpass the state average in every area which I think is an amazing accomplishment and I think this is a attributed to our curriculum revisions our teachers bringing forward things that they see that they want to change within the curriculum it just happened two years ago at the middle school level teachers initiated a great change and I think it had a direct effect on what we're seeing in our students progress I think the adoption of new resources so I think as we research new programs new resources new materials and we are able to bring that in District through our teacher support our administrative support and our board support allowing us to have access to the resources that we need in order to see student progress I think that is directly attributed to the success we're seeing um so really I thank everybody for doing that and I think the students we can't forget to thank the students too they really buckled down during these tests they take it very seriously the teachers Express and administrators Express this is very serious we're going to take this test very seriously and they do and they did a great job and I think they should all be commended in their buildings they did a great job um and teachers did a fantastic job preparing our students for that um and I think we're still continuing the work of those curriculum revisions we just brought in new Ela resources um at the K5 level this year which is a lot of work it's a lot of resources at their finger tips but I do believe that we're going to continue to see the trend of the Student Success um on a state assessment like this as well as other assessments that we're doing during the school day I do believe we're going to see some great progress um and why do I have start strong up there I know we don't want to go back and think about 2020 and 2021 um but remember njsla just recently came back to us after being gone because of covid so it just recently came back to us so I put up the Fall start strong assessments because I wanted to compare now you have this group of students who were assessed right after covid we all know what covid did we all know that there was learning loss that was the whole point of the start strong assessment to see what the learning loss was and to see what skills we needed to Target so when I looked back at that group they were um fourth graders at the time so it was the sixth graders who just recently took that njsla in the spring so at the time right after covid when we assessed them 44% of that grade were identified as needing either some great support or strong support required that's a large chunk of that population of students now fast forward to the spring assessment njsla and now we're at 64.5% meeting or exceeding expectations in math same thing 40% required some are strong support in ela and now that same group is 80% meeting or exceeding expectations so I think we need to really take that in a little bit and really as I said focus in yeah on on the teachers and what they're bringing into their classrooms and the students and the hard work that they're doing and all the resources we're bringing I think that that shows us a clear distinction and a clear line to what we're bringing to the students and how it's actually benefiting them so um I was happy to see those results that I'm glad I was able to dig up those 21 results so the seventh graders in the spring they were fifth graders when they took the start strong same thing they were about 40% in math 30% in ela identified as really needing a lot of support because of the learning loss of covid and now look where we're at over 60% in math and over 78% this is meeting and exceeding expectations so it's not just meeting it's ALS also they're going Beyond expectations so it's phenomenal I think that we've done a lot of work and like I said is there room to grow sure we we know that there's still targeted instruction we have to provide but we're continuing to do that um you remember last year I talked a lot about RTI response to intervention we have a very cohesive program here in each of the buildings um they do a great job of identifying students and providing them with what they need and that continues so through our supports program um I just gave some numbers there so you could see how this directly affects the number of students that require some focused skills all throughout the district so 50 students came to our summer Learning Academy in grades 1 through nine which was great and I mentioned it on the first day of school to teachers I thanked the teachers who ran the summer Learning Academy I was shocked to see that many students come especially at the middle school level in the summer we had a huge group of middle school students and they showed up every day they were happy and they were having a good time and they were learning a lot but there was a large group of them that required interventions and they got a great program for two weeks so we were able to service over 50 students during those two weeks which was great we were able to deliver high impact tutoring to about 20 students in grades three and four so that Grant if if you remember last school year I applied for and was awarded the Grant from the government to deliver high impact tutoring specifically for students in grades three and four based on things like these the state assessments and scores from start strong that were coming out and they said here's funds for you so you can deliver high impact tutoring we were able to service 20 students in grades three and four and that um continued all throughout the school year guided stud we had um in the K5 level we had about 40 students receive guided study in uh ke and Stonybrook and then in 612 there is probably a combined around 50 students or a little over 50 students so we're continuing the work it's through like I said assessments such as this compared with other assessments that we're doing all throughout the school year and other benchmarks that we can identify students who needs specific skills and who need that refocusing and we're able to provide them with specific instruction so we're continuing to build that we're always continuing to think of different ways to deliver this instruction we've now this year in the high school created a supervised guided study hall so specifically for students that are struggling in certain skill areas they can come to a class and get that supported help every day um so it's things that we're continuing to build that was all I had any questions comments yeah yeah we really and the teachers I have to the teachers really from day one they are identifying students in their class room of something they're not getting something and that's okay and that's the whole point of response to intervention so it's a tiered system so they are so great at targeting that they recognize it and they don't immediately do there's not anything Grand that happens right away but they right away just start implementing different techniques and strategies in the classroom for a period of time say a month maybe a month and a half and they're just trying different things you know maybe they have they're struggling with reading comprehension and the teacher just right away starts implementing different techniques and strategies and they keep track of that they collect data they keep track of the progress of the student and then if they're still not progressing then it goes a next step further and that's where you see students can have access to the guided study the supplemental support clubs um and we try to provide as many opportunities we can to help Target that instruction and we do luckily with things like the njsla things like iel when we do the diagnostic assessments when we do standards-based benchmarks I'm looking at my supervisors because that's our big task this year is that we're working with our departments creating standards based assessments so if you're creating an assessment comprehensive assessment you should know what standards you're targeting so you know what skills you need to work on it should be informational for you as a teacher so as we continue to build these things I do think we're going to still see an upward climb um in our scores across the board so you know all the resources like I mentioned and the diagnostic tools they're valuable to us because they give us a lot of information on who we need to enrich also and who needs the extra support yep yep yep so common core were the Nationwide right standards you guys remember um New Jersey we follow our New Jersey state standards that are aligned to Common Core national standards um New Jersey just revamped their Ela and math standards and I think we will start to see a huge impact on that because in just looking at the standards closer today at the elementary level I was with Mrs tdos at Keel and we went through the grade level standards with K1 and two and the amount of foundational skills and standards that are now in the curriculum that were not there in the past um is crucial so it's now addressing the phonics the phonological awareness the building blocks of learning how to read to sound out words to recognize the sounds with the letters that was in a strong focus in the past in New Jersey yes so and I think we'll see that reflected because that impacts everything so now and that's why we purchased new resources for ELA because we needed to support the new program the new standards and this is this is how we're going to address it so yeah I think the shift in standards um will definitely will definitely assist in that yeah yep thank you all right thanks Mrs Thomas that was excellent okay uh the next AG agenda item is the public hearing on refunding the bond ordinance the motion to open the public hearing on refunding the bond ordinance res resolution may have a motion to motion to open S okay thank you all right so resolution of the Board of Education of The Bu of kenalan in the county of Morris New Jersey authorizing certain actions necessary in connection with the sale and issuance of not to exceed $1,500,000 aggregate principal amount of refunding school bonds and authorizing the appropriate officials to do all acts and things deemed necessary and advisable in connection with the sale issuance and delivery of said bonds there's about four and a half pages of riveting literature so I'm going to sum it up in one sentence for you but feel free to read it if you have nothing else that you or you need to fall asleep the board is proposing to refinance bonds at a lower interest rate to produce a tax savings and the bonds will be paid off in accordance with the original term and not extended so the life of the bond isn't being extended we're looking to lower the interest rate and save between 500 and $700,000 depending on when the bonds actually sell when that closes out I am now going to open up for public comment on the refunding of the bond ordinance if you have anything you'd like to say please come up or any questions feel free to use the mic anything online Jay no okay we've this is uh just another this is the second reading of this so we've already discussed sorry discussed this in public all right so motion to close the public hearing on refunding bond ordinance motion to close second okay and then we will be voting later in the agenda all right we're up to committee reports Finance facilities and security Carl okay um so we did meet um on the 18th um discuss a whole lot of things some of these things are actually on the agenda for approval um so we're going to just briefly touch on those but then we'll get into those when we get to the um section um we discussed the um evacuation drills um from keed Cisco everything went really well got a lot of great response from there as uh Mr mango already mentioned um we discussed the geese police which is on the agenda for approval and I'm M make sure I got this right so they're going to go every other month four weeks in a row not every other week okay so we're cutting that down to about half the frequency just to see if we have a geese issue in fact um there's the Energy savings uh resolution that we discussed which is on the uh agenda for approval um there's uh we discussed a new law firm which essentially the Old Law Firm was acquired by a new law firm so it's just to approval to continue with the same um lawyers um we discussed uh charging um uh for sporting events uh entrance for sporting events we discussed the Stony field maintenance uh maintenance plan uh the bonding refunding which we just discussed um some compensation for Cal 3 we discussed uh eate which is also on the for approval and then some environmental um points as well that's about it okay thanks personal negotiations Mike um for the Personnel piece of it more or less so we um discussed the district vacancies that we're looking at filling and we have I think a couple positions that are up for approval tonight we talked about the kindelan or the kindergarten registration hours that was just a um a payment for for somebody that's also the on on the agenda we talked about some a change of assignments we talked about uh the Cal 3 course and and the compensation around that um and then on the negotiation side um just so everybody knows what we're going on there so Dave is working on setting up a running list of things that we're going to talk about when we get to our negotiations meeting on October 2nd um and so we'll have our first round of discussions at that point so I think I asked last time if you guys had anything specific I don't think I got anything but if you guys have anything specific in mind that you want the negotiations team to know just let us know what that is feel free to email him he's the chair sorry thanks Mike education Student Activities Kelly sure so we met on September 11th and we just sure want to make sure you can hear me um the education and Student Activities Committee met on September 11th and we discussed the upcoming reunification evacuation and reunification that was going to be happening at Kil Cisco on 917 and then the upcoming one at Stonybrook um which will be this week on 926 um and just walked through the plan with that um since then K Cisco has it it was a success and it was a really great day and the teachers and the students did a phenomenal job um and I think it can put parents at ease that God forbid anything happens your child has walked through this and they've gone through the steps so they know what to do and they're not going to be panicking in the situation we're just going to say remember what you did we're going to do that again so um we also talked about how the football games will now have an entry fee for students as well as just any late person that's coming that wants to be at the game um we believe that this will provide more safety we will be able to monitor the entrances it is something that can help with the fees that go into the to um the speo Center um and I think it's it's just going to be great I I know a lot of surrounding towns do it so I think it's going to be great in our town too um and then I know nationally we've seen that um A lot's going on with AI so we talked about in this town uh creating some policy I'm not going to steal your thunder but just we talked about it in our committee as well how important it is and how we are you know seeing things Bubble Up in our town and how we want to be in front of you know things that are happening with our students so it was a good meeting thanks Kelly PA John yeah we didn't speak about AI this time but we will uh again in the future because there's a couple topics that we're um interested in working with um faculty staff administrators parents and AI is one of those um also not just in terms of the policy committee but as the full board you know one of the goals you saw last night was saying hey you know you don't even necessarily need to write a new policy although that's what polic committees for but to say like hey you know we are in the business of education so let's educate and you know last night was a good example of saying hey you know the use of technology and screen time and what resources can we provide to the community uh both in person and I was watching online um and it was it was a good um you know that's what we're here for when we're functioning well is bringing concerns and ideas you know constructively together and then addressing them uh we had a very short agenda and still managed to talk for two and a half hours um we talked about the student use of vehicles on school grounds you'll see that up for first reading um just because you know hey you know there's dozens of kids zipping around on ebikes right now and ebikes aren't discussed in the policy because they didn't exist um so that's number one uh number two um it was brought to the committee's attention that um there's a policy it's 2431 has to do with athletic competition and just as a pop quiz it's kind of a rhetorical question but hey if your son or daughter is absent are they permitted to participate in that day's after school activities are you sure is there a policy that says it you know so that's one of the things where you know we are here for so the committee you know reviewed that policy the committee also was looking at student handbooks and also discussing you know some team rules you know if you have a son or daughter on athletic events I'm sure at the beginning of the year they have a sit down with a team those team rules may not be written down and they may not be in compliance with the policy or the handbooks um and yet everybody kind of knows you know that hey this is how it works so um that's another thing that again we we don't have anything uh definitive at this moment because we want to talk more with you know building Administration with the athletic department uh with parents and and students that are participating in that in order to try to really figure out hey what's the best you know way to go and it may be don't change a lot but at the same time we need to make sure that everybody's on the same page uh we also discussed a proposal about the Stony Brook Field and the maintenance and who's responsible for that um and yeah thanks Jonathan so uh there's two policies two 2 430 and 2431 one policy talks about extracurricular activities so clubs not including Athletics and one talks about Athletics the Athletics policy doesn't really say anything about duration of not being in school but the handbook is very specific that for an athletic event you have to be in school for three hours and 20 minutes if you're sick the entire day then you can't even be on campus to watch as a spectator the policy doesn't state that but the act the extracurricular activity says 4 hours so there's some inconsistencies between different stuff that I'm sure it was just one policy was written the other one was written and the handbook was written and um something came up where you know as usual we had a request and we looked at the policy for guidance which is what we should do and we realized that there were some inconsistencies so that's one of the reasons why this came to late and we're addressing it but to John's point I mean we really need to engage the the administration in this before we make any decisions about what's actually in policy and what really belongs more at a handbook level which is a little bit more uh flexible than just policy so that that's an ongoing situation so thank you for discussing that um all right delegates um New Jersey school boards Association Mike you have anything I didn't have a chance to catch up with those emails so I'll send an email out after I know I there's what three a day I feel like there's a lot yeah I didn't have a chance to go through yeah there's a lot thanks I I didn't actually really look at it because we have the the convention coming up so I've really been more focused on that and that is in October Morris County School boards um so there's an upcoming meeting and uh it's Wednesday October 2nd I'll forward the RSVP to everyone just in case you I think everyone does receive it um the kelon school board has been invited to attend to be recognized for achieving board certification through the njsba board member Academy um a few other towns as well um mendum Mountain Lakes have been invited so that's it's a inperson or virtual attendance if you wish and the the topic for conversation I think prior to recognition is mental health resources for districts so which is what we've been discussing with social media so all tying together uh thank you uh I will be there in person um unfortunately is the same night as Breakfast at Tiffany's for the KHS HSA so I might get a half ticket come later I don't know anyway okay legislative representative anything so the legislator's back in session um the only bill that I would highlight would be uh a1432 which would authorize the use of school bus monitoring systems um through through throughout the state and essentially give um towns and school districts the opportunity to provide information about the drivers passing stop school buses against those red you know stop signs um to the no no no to the local police department a ticket may be then issued and then the school district would actually get uh reimbursed for the cost of um the system on the buses that's just in committee is the only thing that really caught my eye thanks John U moris County Educational Services so the next meeting is January 8th uh the board of directors meet every month but the full representative assembly isn't meeting till 2025 remind me not to ask you again um community relations you guys are meeting in November next okay uh K cares Carl you have anything on that there was a meeting sched but lack of quum so was canceled so that'll mean next week or next month okay and KF uh I think we're just going to leave that on hold for right now okay we have petitions and hearings of citizens on agenda items only if you have anything about what's on the agenda questions concerns comments come on up okay seeing none we'll move on okay so for agenda items a b C and D I'd like a motion for a block roll call vote motion okay um so is there any discussion on agenda items A B C or D I just had a clarification question on this is page nine Bill list there's two that are actually listed as zero is that just bookkeeping okay got it okay good you good John Yeah Carl okay seeing no further discussion or questions Miss Francisco can you pull the board please Mr Eisen minger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr petracelli yes Mrs Donson yes okay Committee of the whole uh we have no business for committee of the whole um unfinished business does anybody have any unfinished business NOP okay new business uh um as mentioned by um Mrs Leonard we are being board certified on the 2 so kind of excited about that recognition um correspondents do we have any official correspondents and nope okay we have petitions and hearings of citizens for anything any questions anything else you want to come up no no you me it's not working that's good uh Amy Stickley 457 Laurel Lane um so I wanted to talk about the requirement that we pay a fee for AP testing um and I think that should be discussed uh I understand the reason years ago for it was to make sure that the AP courses still had the rigor that they needed um I think it's possible to make sure that that still happens I think it's possible that if the kids don't take the AP test they could take a different test to make sure they've learned the material um but some of our students are taking a lot of AP exams and financially that's a lot um a lot of those AP credits at some universities really don't transfer as anything I know we're doing more with dual enrollment now so I think this it would be nice to take a look at this yes thank you for bringing that up that was actually on my list one of the reasons was that the testing's associated with our rankings so how kids do so you have the AP number of courses and then how they do on the test can affect rankings so that is the only downside and I I get that but I can tell you other districts locally who are ranked also high they don't require it so maybe we could just consider it oh yeah okay believe me was on my list thank you okay perfect and by the way um if Karen jeo could get a huge bonus that would be great cuz she's the best how do only if you do a tap dance no I'm just kidding um board member comments Jonathan nothing Jen Kelly sorry you know I always love my comments um I just wanted to say uh that it has been a great start to the year and I I'm just excited about about um all the enthusiasm that all the different um School heads and administrators have for this year um the back to school nights all went really well um from a personal front I just wanted to say it was so great to hear the Stony Brook teachers just really getting excited about um their English curriculum and the math technology and it was really cool to just be sitting in the classroom as a parent and hear like all our hard work over the past year like the teachers are excited about it um so that's fantastic um I did want to say like the varsity tutoring that we're doing we talked about it last night if you don't know about that please stay tuned to your email more is going to be coming on that it's for kids grade 6 to 12 and if they're home and they don't know how to do their math homework and heaven knows we don't know how to help them with it um they can instantly get help I mean what is better than that they don't have to figure out the next day how to find someone or go to some classroom instantaneously they can get help I I just just love that um I'm sure kids out there need English help too but probably not as much um and I just want to thank you know denena and the administration and everybody for um putting together that Tech Symposium last night because um Lauren Morello is just a phenomenal speaker and she gives us so much to think about um I know that we talk a lot about you know our kids just have access to so much online and I know our world it's very common to police our kids in real life life so closely and then they just get their iPad and they go to another room right um I think that actually needs to be switched I think that in real life they need to have more experiences and Adventures and opportunities for Independence and when they're on their devices we need to really know where they are and what they're doing um so I love starting conversations like that and I love that our district is going to be doing a lot more of that this year and I just want to thank all our teachers because we're off to a great start and I know their enthusiasm helps um and the classrooms look amazing so thank you Carl Dana and thank you to salani she did a terrific job and that's all Mike yeah welcome also thank you for joining us and a good first report so thank you um great news about the qack so that's always great news to hear and uh thank you to Mrs Thomas for for the report I thought that was you did a great job with that and yeah I concur with it's nice to be off to a good start for the school year so thank you everybody for all your hard work with that um I do want to thank the hsas for once again raising funds and providing supplies for our kids homecoming dance for some of just all that they do for the kids lunch or sorry dinner for the PRM staff for back to school night there's just a lot they do behind the scenes and I really appreciate that I'd like to thank the administration and um the board for all the work we've done over the summer and and um I just want to reassure all of the community members that uh our goal is to provide for this District to be the best District in New Jersey and to provide the best education possible for your kids and that's what we do okay um we are have to go into executive session before we before we go I just I don't want to be the downer to the group you got if you could because we don't have a lot of time between now in our next public meeting if you could just write down October 8th as our committee meeting night it's a Tuesday on the ninth I know we have we're double whammied we have the K5 forum and then we also have the open house for eth grade because we're just running out of time and then on the 10th we have the PRM uh forum and then the follow then Monday the 14th is Columbus Day and then the 15th is our public meeting so we just don't have the time so we have two weeks between now and then I'll come up with the best agenda can it might have to be like kind of old school round robin we're an hour hour hour and we're out um and may who knows maybe some committees won't even meet I don't know but we'll see how much happens in the next only one hour though not two yeah one hour Mr Eisen meiger one okay that's all I have Mrs president the committee decided we're not meeting so okay all right so can I have a motion to go in executive session okay okay all right so that concludes the public meeting thank you so much for coming if you ever have any questions feel free to email me will not be taken folks so enjoy the rest of your night let's go Yan